.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Cornell
Players Mentioned
Valerio Saves Win for Women's Soccer on Senior Day
October 31, 2009 | Women's Soccer
PRINCETON -- Alexandra Valerio won't have her senior day until next year, but she made Saturday a great night for the Princeton women's soccer Class of 2010.
Valerio's goal with 24 seconds left in the second overtime delivered Princeton a 1-0 win over Cornell in the team's home finale of 2009, ensuring the Tigers will have at the least a non-losing record for the 13th straight season and sending Melissa Seitz, Vicki Anagnostopoulos and Marci Pasnello off their home field as winners.
Princeton improved to 7-6-3 overall and 3-2-1 in the Ivy League with a win, though Harvard closed out the Ivy League's NCAA bid with its victory over Dartmouth earlier in the afternoon. Cornell fell to 1-12-1 and 0-6 with the loss, but five of the Big Red's six Ivy defeats have come by one goal.
The game-winning goal came after Princeton played up a player for the final 83:18 after a red card to Cornell's Kala Neilson midway through the first half. Despite the man-advantage and Princeton outshooting Cornell 20-4 for the game, the Big Red kept the Tigers off the board.
"Give credit to Cornell for staying in the game like they did," Princeton head coach Julie Shackford said. "I'm so pleased for Alex to score that goal after helping us so much as a contributing player all season."
It was Valerio's first goal since Oct. 17, 2007, when she scored late in the first half in a 1-0 win at Lehigh. Though Valerio had three goals in that freshman season, the winner against Cornell was her first one at home.
Princeton's defense, backed by Alyssa Pont in net, extended its shutout streak to 611:42 over six games. Last season, the Tigers posted a streak that included parts of nine games and stretched for 722:48.
The Tigers will conclude their season at Penn next Saturday for a 5 p.m. game.